“Julia’s House Moves On” by Ben Hatke (illus.)

I’ve been curious about Ben Hatke’s work for some time now and have wanted to read his Nobody Likes a Goblin, but I keep forgetting to get myself a copy. So, when I saw the cover of Julia’s House Moves On on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it and was glad that I was granted access to it. So shout out to the publisher — First Second. (Thanks!)

(So yea, I got an ARC from the publisher, but my review below is my honest opinion of the book.)

Genre:

Children’s Fantasy

Series:

n/a (but there’s a book before this one with the same protagonist called Julia’s House for Lost Creatures)

Pub:

September 29, 2020

Goodreads summary:

Julia’s house is restless.

Julia and her family of lost creatures are ready to move on. But where will they go? And how will they get there?

Don’t worry—Julia has a plan for that! Julia always has a plan. But when Julia’s plans all fail…

What’s left for her? (Goodreads)

My thoughts:

It’s a sweet little story about a girl who lives in a house that was built on the back of a giant turtle. In the previous book (Julia’s House for Lost Creatures), she had opened her house to lost creatures, and they all still reside with her in this book: goblins, trolls, a mermaid, and even a ghost.

But this time the house is restless, or rather, the turtle is, and despite Julia’s plans, things go awry leaving Julia castoff at sea until her friends pop up with a plan to save her.

I enjoyed it. It was sweet; it was simple, and I liked that her friends stuck with her through this unpredictable period, although it didn’t seem as if they would at first. It’s also a little silly in how the characters navigate the situations they are placed in. I think kids will like that about it.

Art style:

I like it. There’s a lot of movement in it because of what’s going on in the scenes, but I also think it’s because of Hatke’s style for this picture book. There’s always some movement about Julia, even when she’s standing still, like her hair softly blowing in the wind.

I also like the colors used. Of course, I wondered what medium Hatke used. I believe acrylic paint, maybe…? (I always think it’s acrylic, lol.)

I read an electronic copy, so I was unable to take pictures of the illustrations to show a sample of it, but you can find some here.

Overall: ★★★☆☆

A sweet story with silly moments that’ll make for a fun read.

Buy | Borrow | Bypass

I plan to check out more of Hatke’s books.

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